We all knew it had to happen sometime, but ADverse got official word straight from the horse’s mouth on Wednesday that Hulu will begin to charge users for its streaming TV shows, movies and live broadcasts “at least in 2010.” That’s the word from Chase Carey, Deputy Chairman at News Corp., which, being that it owns most of the world, also owns Hulu.

Though it’s still unclear what kind of paying system Hulu would have—subscriptions like Netflix, or by the video, like iTunes—Carey explained that a lot of content would remain free even after certain special features like exclusive content and episode previews become available on a pay-per-view basis. Still, once the systems are in place to charge users for certain videos, it’s only a matter of time before the whole site goes behind a massive pay-wall. So get as much streaming video-watching as you can done now while the watching is free. (TDW)